Today we travel back in time and to London, and check out the streets and cars of the 50s, 60s, and 70s. We’ll do it chronologically, and this terrific shot from the 50s of a Rolls Royce gives us an idea of both how little traffic there was then, and how splendid cars like this were still very much in regular use there and then.

Traffic? What traffic?

Two American cars; are they connected? Maybe the Ford wagon is the luggage wagon for the wealthy party in the Cadillac.

Two women and their dumpy Austin A30. they look like they might have come into the city from a little village in it.

Parking problems in London? Not here.

There’s several foreign cars here.

What an awesome bus!

Another classic Rolls Royce parked at the Palace of Westminster. One of the Lords’?

Now we move into the 60s.

And this is my favorite shot of them all, a girl in a mini dress using the brightly polished radiator as a mirror. Old meets new.

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“Look Left/Look Right” is something that Continentals and those from across the Pond need to constantly keep in mind (and not learn the hard way) when a pedestrian in Great Britain, Ireland, Hong Kong, Japan, Oz, New Zealand. The first “encounter” can be scary!

Notice it has a SUN ROOF in spite of being a ‘ penalty car ‘ .
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Pops direct imported a 1937 Bentley St. James FHC in the late 1950’s, I loved riding in it and still love and own some LBC’s ~ I was working on one yesterday getting the driver’s window lift replaced before the rains came .

I always notice in old pics of London how dark and dirty the buildings are (the ones which aren’t painted).

On her last visit here in 1990, my mother commented on how all the major buildings had been cleaned up: “All those old films weren’t in black and white, you know. London in the 1950s was a uniform dark grey.”

Before the Clean Air Act of 1956 there was little point in cleaning buildings as the air was full of sulphurous coal fumes, a large proportion from coal fires. It didn’t take long before cleaning up started. This July 1962 picture of Charing Cross Road, near Trafalgar Square shows the top part of Lyons Corner cleaned. The whole building was clean by the time Dad photographed next it on the occasion of Churchill’s funeral in January 1965.

Sometimes when watching English TV shows they will show stone or brick houses in the country, and similarly they look dark and dirty, although the surrounding countryside appears lush. Then when the scenes move to the inside of the house, the interiors are clean and modern looking. It’s a strange contrast.

The “awesome bus” in the eight picture is a Duple Elizabethan coach body, probably on a AEC Reliance chassis (engine under the floor), an early UK design (1953) with the door ahead of the front axle. Following behind it is a Bedford TJ, introduced in 1958. The Bank of England is in the RH background.
Knowing that junction, the Austin A35 and Ford Anglia 100E are probably waiting for the next set of lights to change.

I could just imagine ‘Arfur’ Daley from Minder pulling up in his Jag in the second last picture. Checking in on one of his little schemes that Terry will help him get out of. If you can ever find the early series of Minder, watch it for a laugh. Better than the stuff on TV now.

Too many things to comment on! For example: ‘No foreign cars at this pub’ – the Freemason Arms, Hampstead. Possibly, (but I’m not even sure if it’s true any more) the only pub left in London where you still might see traditional London Skittles being played.
The Roller at the Palace of Westminster? The Series I Land Rover next to it would just as likely be the wheels of one of their Lordships too!
Blooms Restaurant – ‘Mazeltov to Her Majesty’? Probably 1977 when ERII celebrated 25 years on the throne.

There are some fascinating videos on YouTube of London streets throughout the 20th century. This one from the early/mid 1950’s has great colour and atmosphere, and lots of cars despite the relatively thin traffic.

What a great series of old photos…though I’ve never been to London. Would love to make it there one day (my wife spent about 8 months there at university for a study abroad program, so I regularly hear about her time there!)

The photo of the girl using the Silver Cloud grille as a mirror is absolutely classic!